Safe Motion Planning for Machinery Operation

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one said safe volumetric zone is mapped based at least in part on user input.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one said safe volumetric zone is disposed outside of the field of view of the sensor.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the user input overrides a mapping based on images recorded by the sensor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a volume as occupied comprises receiving light reflected from an object disposed in the volume, an intensity of the reflected light being higher than a predetermined threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more objects within the field of view of the sensor are insufficiently reflective to reflect light, back to the sensor, having an intensity higher than the threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the one or more safe volumetric zones with a safety criterion.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the safety criterion corresponds to a minimum distance from a piece of the controlled machinery.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more safe volumetric zones include only the volumes that have been identified as unoccupied.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising, based on the recorded images, identifying a workpiece and/or at least an element of the machinery using a neural network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a time-of-flight sensor, a 3D LIDAR sensor, or a stereo vision camera.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising operating the machinery in accordance with the motion plan.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the cost value associated with each of the trajectories is assigned based at least in part on a length of the trajectory, an operation time of the machinery on the trajectory, and/or allowed kinematics of the trajectory.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the motion plan precludes entry into a volumetric zone outside the one or more safe volumetric zones by the machinery and any workpiece associated with the machinery or the task.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising real-time monitoring of the workspace and altering the motion plan in response to a change in the one or more safe volumetric zones.